Buckle up: all about Belts and your car's paint

Probably the wrong kind of belt buckle - on many different levelsWorking on your car? You really should tick the ‘pants down possibility’ box

You think this is a joke? It’s not. Belts hold your pants up, sure, but they also cause hundreds of dollars worth of damage to cars. Why? Well, when you’re leaning all the way across the mudguard to change the air filter, your belt-line is hard up against the car’s paint. Depending on the design of the buckle it’s too easy to scratch all over both mudguards before you even notice a problem – and if you do that, it pretty much takes all the juice out of the money-saving DIY argument. (And all the juice out of the ‘I know I’m doing the job properly’ argument, too.)

Solution? Lose the belt – or buy ones like the mechanics use, with a smooth layer all the way across the front, where car contact is likely.